Hidden Potential
by little folly
Summary: In hope to improve her power Lucy travels to the spirit realm but is there for longer than she intended, leaving Natsu restless and yearning for her return and that is when the real adventure begins! Nalu with sprinkles of other pairings.
1. A Budding Journey

**AN: Hello everyone, here is my second story for FT. I'm really excited to bring this to you, it's been a fair while in the making. I wanted to have a second chapter all prepared to post soon, I have one fifth of it done but I decided I really wanted some feedback before I went too far! I have a fair idea where the story's going but it never ceases to amaze me where stories take you (it's already changed so much since my initial idea). Anyways I hope you all enjoy and please leave feedback! I'd especially like to know if people think the point of view changes too much and is confusing at all! Happy reading.**

The Grand Magic Games were over and its victors were once again the crowning glory of Magnolia. Adoration rained down in glittering cascades as the townspeople threw them countless parties in the guild they proudly made for them. Lasting friendships were forged between the mages and the commonfolk; magic and non-magic users now united in a way they never had been before the games. The air inside the newly built guild lay heavy with alcoholic haze gathered from a month's worth of relentless revelry. Familiar and unfamiliar faces filled the main hall once more with animated chatter and activity. The request board was 3-papers-thick with jobs, and a majority of them requested specific mages that were admired from the games.

The guild's cover-girl barmaid was currently disposed in the daunting task of organising the requests into piles based on the mages whose talents were sought after. She thought to herself that she may need to add a "mage requested" column to her request record book in addition to the "date received", "requester", "request", "reward", "completed by" and "date completed" columns.

Erza's pile currently took the lead, with Natsu and Gajeel's not far behind.

'Naaaaa, why does Erza have more requests than me?' Natsu grumbled.

'Because you have a reputation for destroying the cities that you take requests in!' Lucy huffed, knowing all too well of Natsu's talent for whittling away request rewards.

'Yeah you sure demonstrated that when you destroyed the stadium floor in your match against the twin dragons, dumbass!' Gray snickered.

'Hey that was Sting's fault! But I could have easily done it too!' Natsu retaliated.

'That's exactly the problem!' Lucy butted in but was long forgotten from the conversation as flame and ice flickered and morphed around the rival mages. Natsu was omitting an awful snarl with flecks of spittle flinging onto Gray's face and sizzling against the latter's cold skin, making him ever more enraged.

'Pity your hot spit has better accuracy than your chaotic attacks!'

'Hey I don't see you defeating real-life dragons ice-prick!'

'Only because you hid behind Atlas Flame's legs like a little baby!'

'Baby? You were the one losing to baby dragons!'

With that Natsu burst into a fit of laughter but Gray was frozen still in remembrance of that battle. He looked down, put his hands in his pockets and risked a quick glance over to Juvia. Ever since her glimpse at Gray's death Juvia had been keeping a distance from him, forever working on solo missions. When she was there he noticed the occasional furtive glance from her but she would always look pained, guilty even. That day signified a victory laced with many painful memories of what-may-have-been for some mages of Fairy Tail, and none more so than that shared by Gray and Juvia.

Natsu, having not received the verbal (or physical) backlash that he was expecting from Gray, looked to see his friend with a strange dumb look on his face. 'Temee what's wrong with _you_?!' He asked as he closely inspected the ice-mage's glazed expression. This was to no avail as the object of the inquiry simply began to walk away without so much as a glance back at the befuddled young dragon slayer.

Meanwhile a crowd had gathered to watch Mira as she placed each request upon its respective pile. In-between gulps of ale Cana was calling out the betting odds for the mage with the most requests. The equally inebriated punters took no notice that the odds changed in Cana's favour as the piles grew. Each careful placement was met with cheers and jeers, and Cana stuffed jewel upon jewel into her ample till (which uncannily resembled a blue bikini top). Amid this chaos little notice was taken of the guild's master who sat on the edge of the bar with his head leaning in one palm. His eyes were closed, lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed as he seriously pondered over Erza's lead (he had placed a significant bet on Natsu). Then finally it came to him; the true reason Erza's services were more coveted than Natsu's.

He jumped to his feet and raised his arm in the excitement of his revelation, 'I've got it!' he proclaimed, although not loud enough to be heard over the guild's clamour. However a queer thing happened; the guild became deafeningly quiet but for a few echoes of the previous tumult. All faces turned to the little master. Lucy aptly noted that his pose resembled the popular Fairy Tail stance that had an eerie way of gaining the attention of all those with the Fairy Tail stamp. Noticing that he now held the attention of his guild members the master thought he might as well enlighten the crowd with his revelation.

'It's because she has breasts,' he declared and brought down his arm to point directly at Erza where she sat. All heads rubbernecked in the direction he pointed, saw the guild's Titania, then rebounded back to the master in confusion.

'The reason she gets the most requests,' he clarified.

Eyes locked back on Erza, a few chins dragging along the floor. With bated breath they awaited her reaction to the master's blatant disregard of her unrivalled skill. She had been sitting amongst the guild's chaos, slowly devouring a slice of strawberry cake the size of her head, largely unfazed by the unofficial request competition. She took the master's words into consideration, then with a slow nod of her head and an agreeable 'mmm,' she concurred.

The onlookers collapsed in disbelief.

'You are very perceptive master,' she began, 'my armours are specifically designed to complement my feminine figure in order to attract more clients, allow me to demonstrate.' The Titania stood up and ex-quipped into her famous Heaven's Wheel armour.

'As you can see the breast plate reveals an ample amount of the bosom, this armour is mostly used for long range attacks so the exposed area is not at much risk of damage like it would be in close-range combat.'

Most of the guild members were now ogling the mage as she began to run through the specifications of her entire armour inventory. Natsu seemed rather confused as to why Erza bothered; she just looked scary in whatever armour she wore. Beside him Macao and Wakaba were talking in hushed tones without taking their eyes off the Titania and Natsu decided to listen in. 'This is my favourite, she looks like a true dominatrix,' Wakaba said as Erza donned her Black Wing armour, to which Macao replied, 'she can dominate me any day!' And they both laughed. What this meant Natsu had no clue, only that they said it in the way that all perverted things are said. Compared to his enormous physical power it was widely acknowledged that Natsu's mental stamina was somewhat lacking. He had the characteristic ability to put all of his thinking and energy into one output; a sort-of tunnel vision like that of a dog when chasing a ball. Often his actions did not require any thinking at all but relied completely on his powerful instincts. This was undoubtedly useful in the heat of battle when there is no time for thinking, but was also the reason he was often acknowledged as being somewhat simpleminded. He lacked the ability to make complex connections or understand slightly abstract concepts and it required one-too-many thought processes for him to make the connections between the men's perverse tones and Erza's domineering outfit. When he enquired as to what a dominatrix was it had only made them laugh more. The two adults didn't look like they were going to finish laughing any time soon so Natsu left having become annoyed and bored.

All the while Lucy was amused by the whole situation; she often found she was the only one to see the humour in the Titania's tendency to take things literally. In times like these Lucy felt like she was looking down at characters in one of her narratives, as she seemed the only one to grasp the ironies and subtleties of the scene before her**(1)**. As she watched Erza Lucy thought of how great it would be to have such impregnable confidence. For mages such as Erza, Natsu, Gajeel and Gray fighting ran in their blood, whereas for her it was more of a means to an end. She felt a slight pang of jealousy that even a dunce like Natsu had such a natural fighting intelligence whereas she could stay up all night planning her stratagems. She knew she could hold her own in a fight but when compared to her other team members she was undoubtedly the weakest link. She yearned to join them, up in their own class of power that gave them the freedom of impulsivity and recklessness. On top of this her pride had taken a hit when Minerva humiliated her after their submerged battle. Revenge wasn't usually her style but if she ever saw that evil woman again she wanted to be ready.

As she placed the last request onto Natsu's pile Mira was glad that Erza had momentarily diverted the guild's attention; the boy-dragon's pile had caught up with Erza's so she knew the punters would insist she counted them a dozen times over. Instead she took her chance to duck out of the crowd for a quick break. In doing this she saw the only face not glued to Erza; Lucy's, so she walked over to her.

'Lucy is anything wrong?'

The celestial mage looked to Mira and put on a smile, 'Erza has such a natural talent, just like Natsu and Gray, it's like they were born with it,' Lucy sighed, she only meant for this to convey her genuine admiration for her friends but Mira could sense the underlying despondency.

'None of them were born with it,' she assured Lucy, 'Erza worked hard at her powers because of the guilt of leaving her friends at the Tower of Heaven, Natsu trained relentlessly with his father and Gray put all of his heart into his magic in hope to avenge Deloria for destroying his homeland. And it may not look like training but they've all been fighting each other since they met because they found worthy opponents that they could learn from.'

'Oh, I didn't think of that, I guess they did train hard to get where they are now, thanks Mira! That makes me feel better!' Mira nodded and swished back behind the bar to get a refreshment.

Lucy couldn't help but feel a little stupid for thinking all of those silly thoughts; of course they weren't all born with their skills. She resolved to stop coming up with excuses. It was up to her to train harder than ever before so she could fight without fear, side-by-side with her teammates. The thought got Lucy all fired up. At that moment she felt a familiar warm weight thump across her shoulders.

'Oya Lucy what are you doing sitting by yourself?'

'Natsu! I've decided I'm going to train hard so I can get as good as you and Erza!'

The immediate image to enter Nastu's mind was Lucy clad in heavy armour waving around a sword with fire spurting from her mouth.

'Scaaary,' he shuddered.

'Don't think weird thoughts!' Lucy shouted at him.

Brushing the terrifying image away he remembered something; 'aw yeah we never did finish our training before the games, I know! I'll train you! It will be Natsu-sensei's boot camp from hell! We'll have fire-pits, fire-rings, fire-balls, fire-works, hot coals, fire-spirals, fire-rain, that's when I shoot fire balls down from the sky, fire rings.'

'You already said fire-rings!' Lucy didn't quite see the appeal of Natsu's training regime, 'you know I think I'll just ask Caprico again, he was the one that helped my mother train, he'll know how to make me strong.'

'Mmmm, sounds boring,' Natsu rested his chin on her shoulder.

'You don't have to come, in fact I think it would be good for me to train alone with my spirits.'

This didn't really sit right with Natsu; they were a team and they should stick together, but after he voiced this concern Lucy remained obstinate.

'Natsu this is a journey I feel like I need to take by myself to really get to know my spirits and learn more about my powers.'

'Ok if it's that important to you then you should do it, but don't take too long,' he huffed.

'Mmmm,' Lucy nodded her head. Her heart was beating fast with the whole prospect of it all. There was fear for going on an adventure without her teammates, excitement for forming stronger bonds with all of her spirits, there was a strange pulse of loneliness when she pictured Natsu, but ultimately her heart beat passionately for the new Lucy she would become.

That afternoon, after telling everyone of her plans, Lucy stood in front of her door and reached for the one normal key that always looked rather out of place amongst her ornate spirit ones. Unlocking the door she entered her cosy apartment. At that moment she saw the room with a dizzying clarity. The afternoon light coming through the window was bright and illuminated thousands of tiny dust particles in two beams separated by the wooden window panel. The edges of all of her furnishings seemed sharper and the room felt strangely small, as if it couldn't contain this expanding feeling she had. The last time she had felt this euphoric sense of clarity and resolution was a hard moment to forget; it was the moment she decided to run away from home.

She breathed in deeply.

'Open, gate of the ram,' she felt the familiar gust of wind as the spirit materialised from the spirit realm.

'How meh I be of service Lucy-sama?'

'Please Caprico I want to become much stronger so I can learn to fight without fear,' she looked at him with a determination that he recognised from his time in Layla's service. He realised she was now ready to take the next step in her journey as a celestial spirit mage.

'Ah, there is a limit to what I can teach you, if you wish to progress faster I have heard of an extremely powerful celestial spirit mage that has been able to unlock the true power of all of his spirits. Even his silver-key spirits found strength that many of us gold-key spirits couldn't imagine.'

'Whoa sounds amazing! I didn't know such a celestial mage existed,' said Lucy.

'Yes well he has retired from his guild and works as a freelance mage so he is quite difficult to track down. I gather that he also has a habit of lending a few of his spirits to villages in need until they can pick themselves up again.'

'That seems a bit reckless to me,' Lucy pondered.

'It is a little peculiar but he always returns to them and knows that they are strong enough to fend for themselves if anything goes awry, hmmmm.'

'What is it?' Lucy asked.

'I am simply thinking of how you meh find him, I meh have to ask the Spirit King where he his,' Caprico reasoned.

'Oh please let me come! I would love to go to the spirit realm again, I feel like I learnt so much about you all by seeing you together where you come from. I want to better understand you so we can all become closer. Could you bring me there again?'

'My lady I could but you must remember the difference in time flow.'

'Hmmm, well, if I'm only gone for say one hour… let's see… that would be around,' Lucy took a moment to do the arithmetic whilst tapping her chin with her index finger, 'four days in our world**(2)**, that would be alright since I would only miss more of the same partying that's been going on for a whole month now.'

'As you see it my lady. It is an honour that you would dedicate your time to visit us in the realm we proudly call home.'

'All right!' she pumped her fist.

She spent the rest of that night advising her spirits of her visit, all of whom were very excited and agreed to inform those that she could not call out on that day. Virgo thought the hour would be best spent undergoing some sort of punishment and Taurus wanted to choose the spirit realm clothes that would permit Lucy's entry. Caprico sensibly advised Horologium to teach Lucy about the complicated dimension of time and how it differed between the mortal and spirit realms. It was the first time Lucy heard Horologium talk so much. He began in such a way that Lucy felt like they could be there for a while.

'Lucy-sama it must be understood that time as a quantifiable entity is an unfamiliar concept in the spirit realm. There is no night and day, there are no weeks and there are no years. For us spiritual beings time is not something you can count out with hands on a clock or sand in an hourglass. Our understanding of time is that your mortal realm is dictated by what we call "Chronos", and ours by "Kairos"**(3)**. That is to say your world follows time as a sequence of events whereas we are guided by opportune moments that we respond to. For us time is defined by the moments that occur as we interact with events in the spirit realm and more importantly the moments that call us into the mortal realm,' he went to continue but Lucy interrupted him.

'Wait, but what about what Virgo said, that one day in the spirit world equals three months in my world? How did she know it was one spirit realm day if you can't measure time?' Lucy's head was spinning.

'She must have been trying to simplify things, we cannot know how long we were in the spirit realm that time, only that the event equated to three months of mortal time.'

This posed quite an issue if Lucy didn't want the same thing to happen as when they lost three months of their training camp, heck she'd already missed out on seven years of time in Earthland.

'So if we can't measure how much time we are using while I'm in the spirit realm how can we stop me from missing out on too much Earthland time?'

'Well, I propose that I stay in the mortal realm for the four days that you agreed upon and then I will come and alert you when you must come back.'

'Ah! That's a great idea, are you sure you'll be okay in our realm for four whole days?'

'Yes very sure, my power has increased significantly as you have been improving your magic, four days will be easy if I do not strain myself.'

'Well alright, if that is okay with you, thank you so much Horologium you have always been there for me in tricky situations like these!'

Two pink circles appeared at the three and nine o'clock positions of his face, 'it is my honour Lucy-sama, just call me out when you are ready to come to our realm,' he was about to vanish before things got too sentimental but Lucy had one last question that came to her.

'Horologium, if you can't measure time in the spirit world then why do you, a clock, come from that world?'

'Oh, well, as you know, we are manifestations of the magic of the stars so when I am in the spirit realm you can see me as a constellation in the night sky. For centuries mortals looked up on my constellation and began associating me with "Chronos", or "time", so my celestial magic eventually took the form of a pendulum clock.'

'How interesting! Thank you, I will see you tomorrow then.' Horologium sighed in relief as he disappeared; one second longer and may have burst from embarrassment from telling the precious Lucy-sama his life story.

That night Lucy looked out her window up to the stars shining in the sky and thought of all of her amazing spirits. She dreamt a dream of the spirit realm in all of its splendour and shine, only there was one thing stopping it from being perfect. In her dream state Lucy felt a slight sense of coldness, or maybe it was not so much coldness but a lack of warmth, a feeling of something missing. It lingered just below the thin membrane that separates the conscious from the subconscious so she could never quite grasp the essence of the feeling. She awoke the next morning with no recollections of her dream but the indistinguishable feeling remained. She put it down to nerves and began preparing for the big day (or four).

She arrived at Fairy Tail at eight thirty as she was eager to quickly notify her friends of her four-day absence and be on her way. The sight she was welcomed with was nothing unusual to her. The mages and commoners were sprawled out on the floor in piles of limbs and snoring faces. Mira was gliding around the floorboards with a mop humming, not making any effort to stop the mop from sloshing into the comatose party-goers' faces. Lucy giggled as she felt like she was seeing just a glimpse of Mira's demon side peeking through her angel-like persona.

'Ah Lucy!' Mira exclaimed, 'how are your training plans coming along?'

'Well I'm going to go to the spirit realm just for a little while to learn where I can find a very strong celestial spirit mage.'

'How wonderful, just don't forget about the time difference.'

'Mmmm don't worry I've got that all figured out!'

Lucy had a quick scan around the guild and took no time to spot her partner's spiky pink peaks. He lay on his back and his head rested on Droy's soft pudgy thigh, which made her wonder whether he picked whom he would pass out on. This question was answered when she inspected the rest of his body. The hem of his pants and boxers were caught on a nail and so they had been dragged halfway down his bottom on one side. He must have been lying on the floor and then dragged himself up to rest his head on Droy. Her gaze lingered over his exposed lower abdomen where she saw the top of some course darker pink hairs. She hated to admit that her partner looked fairly sensual when he was exposed like this. Heavens above she thought she was over this phase of being attracted to Natsu, but then she is given this visual. She couldn't help but follow the taut pelvic muscles as they descended into the region that was so unknown to her. She was at the age when she was beginning to hear stories from her drunken friends (mostly Cana) about sexual encounters and her current view was surely bringing some of those stories to the forefront, now featuring Natsu's body. Although truthfully she could only picture his body doing those things to her, when it came to his face she could only imagine his immature antics; something like 'whoo I'm riding Lucy kakakakaka!' as he spanked her hard on the behind. That was enough to stop her thoughts in their tracks.

Natsu awoke to the distinct smell of Lucy and when he opened his eyes there she was, looking very intently as his stomach.

'Ohayou Lucy,' he said groggily as he scratched over the area that she had been inspecting. He noticed his pants were down so he pulled them up and briefly felt his pride swell that he had probably caught Lucy admiring his muscles. Luckily for Lucy he didn't make any further presumptions about her behaviour. His thoughts merely gravitated toward assessing his surroundings and choosing the next course of action.

'Ah!' Lucy sprung up quickly, praying that Natsu hadn't caught her perusing his exquisite body, 'ohayou!'

Natsu slowly hauled himself up and absentmindedly belted up his pants a bit lower than he usually would in a hope that he might catch Lucy admiring his muscles again and tease her about it.

'Natsu I'm going to be away for four days, I'm just going to talk to the Spirit King about where I can find a very strong celestial spirit mage to train me.'

'I'll come with you,' he stated as if it was a given fact. For one heart beat Lucy felt that indeterminate feeling she woke with dissipate with the thought that she could just bring Natsu with her. However her passionate vision of her own personal quest overcame that thought and she stayed firm.

'I told you yesterday I want to do this myself and it will just be talking. You wouldn't want to waste four Earthland days listening to me talk with the Spirit King, would you?'

Natsu thought that did sound very boring when he could just stay here and fight bad guys for four days instead. Though he did think it a little odd that she was so adamant to go by herself; things are so much more fun when your best friends are with you.

'Yeah okay say hi to moustache man for me then!'

* * *

**(1) Mashima has commented that although Natsu's personality resembles his younger self, he is more connected to Lucy's character – Lucy represents him in a way.**

**(2) Spirit realm : Earthland time ratios according to Virgo's information – 1day:90days = 15mins:1day = 1hr:4days**

**(3) The ancient Greeks had two words for time; Chronos and Kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time (more quantitative), the latter signifies a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens (more qualitative).**


	2. Timeless

**AN: Here's the second chappy. For anyone following since the first chapter, I've edited it a little, mostly things to do with Natsu's point of view as I decided I didn't want him to be oblivious to all things woman, instead I've just made him an exaggerated version of most boys in that he doesn't think or dwell on things and hence doesn't make the connections to things being sexual... (but not for long mwahahaha). Also let me know what you think about the Gruvia stuff, at the moment I'm planning for it to continue running as a side-plot but could always give them more limelight if there was enough interest :)**

With all matters in order it was time for Lucy to be on her way. She stood resolutely in the center of her small apartment, barely able to contain her excitement about embarking on this journey that will unlock her full potential.

'Open, gate of the clock!' she recited.

Horologium appeared with his usual solemn expression that failed to convey the pride he felt in being of use to Lucy. He felt truly honoured to receive her trust and to play a key role in her journey. He proceeded to equip Lucy with her celestial realm clothes including a tight leather bodice in purple with gold spiralling patterns. On the sides the bodice finished at the top of her hipbones then slanted down to her pubic bone at the center. Underneath this was a white-gold dress that frilled over the top of the bodice with two short sleeves that hung off her shoulders. The frills continued at the bottom of the bodice to barely cover her behind. Intricate gold cuffs encircled her upper arms and black sandals weaved up her leg to the knee.

Before she knew it, and without a chance to say goodbye to Horologium, she was on the iridescent circular portal of the spirit realm surrounded by her beloved spirits. They hugged and exchanged greetings quickly before heading off to see the Spirit King, as they were unsure when the Clock would appear to take Lucy away. They met with the Spirit King in the open-air atrium that Lucy recognised as the place where they partied on her last visit. It was clear that this was a realm full of the magic of the stars; balls of shining light floated and danced through the air leaving behind trails of stardust that slowly sank down to the floor.

The king sat in a translucent glass throne and his face broke into an enormous grin as he saw Lucy and her troupe approach. 'Ah here comes a truly special celestial mage,' he thought to himself, 'she hasn't yet scratched the surface of the enormous potential I can see within her.'

'Ah Lucy I heard you were coming to see me, how can help my favourite little mage?'

'Well I've been told that there is a very powerful celestial spirit mage that might be able to help me get stronger, and I was hoping that you could tell me where I could find him.'

'AHA yes! I know the one you are talking about, yes, I have some history with that one but that's a story for another time. His name is Marlon Aberfoyle, you know I try to keep a track of that one as much as I can through his spirits but it is mighty hard when he keeps them so busy in the mortal realm!'

Lucy wanted to know the Spirit King's connection with this incredible mage but it sounded like a long story that she may not have the time for.

'So do you know where he might be?'

'Last time I heard of him he was in the northern mountains helping a small village dig their homes out of a mile of snow and restore them to normalcy after a huge avalanche, but who knows where he is now. He has this incorrigible impulse to rush to the aid of anyone in need so he often leaves his spirits to finish any business that he started.'

The king said this in such an admiring tone that she could see that he deeply respected this mage, but there was a slight hint of longing and regret in his voice.

The Spirit King closed his eyes and seemed to briefly meditate.

'Ah what good timing, I sense that one of his spirits has just returned, she will know where he is, Cetus over there will give you all a ride to her home!'

Without a moment's thought they were all scooped up onto the whale Cetus' back and he took off into the endless expanse of stars, though little did they know that Horologium had just entered the spirit realm to inform her that her time was already up.

* * *

Natsu lay on his back on the grass at his favourite fishing spot wondering what Lucy was up to in the spirit realm with all of her funny spirits. Happy lay beside him, belly expanded, in a fish-induced stupor. It was the fourth day Lucy had been gone so she should be coming back today. After Lucy had left it was revealed that Erza had won the request competition. Only then did Erza suddenly become very interested in the competition and stated that there would be a punishment for the losers in which she would get to choose which request they would fulfil first. Mira's face had glowed with enjoyment as she knew just the request for Natsu and had passed it to the Titania. It read, "will pay anything to have a date with my beloved Natsu-kun!" The page was yellow with pink cutout hearts and a disturbingly accurate drawing of Natsu (down to a faint scar on his arm that could only be seen from up close) holding hands with a beautiful busty girl who could be none other than the requester. Natsu had avidly complained but could not hold out against Erza so the deal was made and he had his date the following day.

The requester had not looked anything like the drawing; instead she sported a stick-like figure, a long thin face and a sharp pointy nose. For the whole day all she did was reminisce about what he had done in the games, which the boy in question found intolerably boring as he had already lived through these moments. She described his perfect facial expressions and how they had affected her soul as she watched them on the lacrima, but never deigned to ask Natsu what he had truly been thinking (for she knew his soul better than he did himself so he could offer no new information). Despite mostly tuning out the girl's droning, the experience made Natsu feel strange and impure. He itched to fight someone and be rid of the taint this woman left on his fight with the twin dragons. When watching this battle she had witnessed his poetic internal conflict on whether to protect Gajeel's pride by letting him fight, or his life, by removing him from the arena. With this Natsu had finally heard enough so had left her there without collecting any reward. He had spent the next two days picking fights to finally bring us to the present, as the restless dragon lay sprawled on the grass thinking of Lucy.

The fighting had refreshed the fiery boy for the most part but as he lay there on the damp grass he couldn't help but think that Lucy held the answer to getting rid of this dirty impurity that still clung to him from that superficial woman. He did not know that what Lucy held, the thing that he needed and yearned for and what was truly unique to her, was simply her purity and true understanding. He decided to grab Happy and head to her apartment to check if she had returned.

* * *

That morning Juvia had woken up in a cold sweat, which for her drenched her entire mattress so that there was a puddle around her in the groove that her sleeping body made. She woke with a start and tears where streaming down her face. It was that dream again, the dream she couldn't escape from ever since the fight against the seven dragons. Every night she had to watch Gray-sama's death played over and over and there was never anything she could do about it. To think that she would have been the cause of her one-true-love's death, the thought ripped her heart in two. Didn't he know that without him her life would not be worth living? Seeing Gray-sama walking around, alive, felt like seeing a ghost. Sure, he was alive, she had come to terms with that, but he only represented one side of the coin of fate. Usually we do not get to see the other side but this time it was revealed with the gift of hindsight. Given the gift to see into the future, anyone may take the chance to alter it, but wouldn't the first path taken seem like the true, original path? The true Gray was now dead because of her, because her love for him had distracted her in the heat of battle. She would not allow herself the luxury of loving him anymore, he was far too good for her and she did not deserve his sacrifice. Juvia allowed herself to believe that her true Gray had died on that day and she would now live striving to be worthy of his life.

She slowly trickled herself off of the hotel bed and drew all of the sweat and sadness from the mattress back within her. She dressed herself and stepped out of her room to continue on her latest mission.

* * *

'That is it!' Gray thought, 'it was bad enough when Juvia was stalking me but now it's like I've disappeared to her! How come now that I barely see her I suddenly want to feel her presence? It pisses me off.' Gray knew this huge change in her behaviour had to have something to do with their shared vision of his death. Hell, he was still haunted by that out-of-body experience but they just had to continue on and be thankful that that hadn't happened. Just before it happened he had wanted to tell her that he thought that they made a good team and they should do a mission together sometime. He still felt that way but never got the chance to tell her as she didn't take part in any of the festivities but instead took on mission-after-mission and was becoming more and more recognised for her great power.

'That's it! I will talk to her and resolve this awkwardness, it has got to be unhealthy for me to be thinking of her this much!' He felt good in knowing that this uneasiness would be resolved just when he could find the reclusive water elemental.

His first port of call was the guild's resident know-it-all Mira who told him that Juvia was on a weeklong mission in the neighbouring town of Onibus and that she would be there for at least four more days. Well this was his mission now: find Juvia, talk her out of avoiding him, and maybe help her with her mission, easy.

* * *

Confusion and panic were the first two emotions to register for Horologium when he returned to the Spirit King's atrium, Lucy was nowhere to be seen! It was the one thing he had not foreseen; that he would not return straight to Lucy when he came back to the spirit realm. Instead he had returned to the exact place that he had been when Lucy had called him to her four days ago. He recalled that whenever he returned to the spirit realm he always appeared at the same place that he left from, why had he thought it would be any different this time? Truth was he hadn't thought, instead being too absorbed in the brilliance of his plan to help Lucy-sama. He turned around to see the Spirit King playing doubles badminton with Perseus against Hercules and Orion **(1)**. Each of them was standing fifty metres from the net as they all hit the shuttlecock with such immense force that it whirred past in a blur of white.

'Ahem, hem, Spirit King,' the Clock timidly tried to get the giant's attention, it was lucky that the King could sense him because the sound came out more like a squeak. The King turned his way and peered down at him whilst not missing one shot in the game.

'Hello Horologium! How can I help you?'

'Has Lucy-sama come to see you yet?'

'Why yes she has! I've just sent her off with Cetus to see Hydra, who can tell her where Marlon is!'

Despite being a great and generous ruler Horologium felt that the Spirit King had a knack for being far too nonchalant in the direst of situations.

'Ah, well, you see, she's already spent too much time in this realm so I've come to bring her back.'

'Don't worry so much Clock! She'll be back in no time, now do you think you could referee our game? Orion keeps calling my shots out but I don't think I really trust him,' he said as he smashed the shuttlecock far into the atmosphere.

'Hey you know I can still hear you, and that one is definitely out!' Orion called from one hundred metres away.

Horologium didn't have the courage to get mad at the Spirit King so he politely excused himself and tried to think of how he could get to Hydra's home since he couldn't be ferried by Cetus. He remembered that Volans, the twin flying fish, usually played their strange games in the atmosphere around here. Yes, he was in luck, he spotted their oscillating figures above the Crescent Moon Garden, half a mile away. He ran as fast as he could and then called out to the dopey fish in the sky that were currently chasing each other's tails. 'Ahem, Volans! Volans!'

The two flying fish stopped and looked at each other, assessing whether it was the other that called to it. Finally concluding that it was in fact someone else calling their name they began to slowly bob down to the surface.

'Did I hear my name?' one said as he followed his brother toward the ground.

'I don't know, but I think I heard my name,' he was hovering just above the ground, Horologium was right in front of him but his pupils both pointed outward so he didn't see him.

'In fact you have the same name,' Horologium stated matter-of-factly. The fish was startled to find a clock had appeared in front of him. He stared at Horologium, the pupils of his big googly eyes now narrowly focused on the "newcomer".

'Bro look what I found, a talking clock.'

'I am called Horologium, and I am in need of your help.'

'Sure talking clock, we'll help you won't we bro?'

'Yeah we'll help the talking clock,' the fish were now facing one another, then one held its fin out, and the other mirrored it, then it rolled over so that its stomach pointed upwards, and the other followed as a perfect mirror. One swam backward in a loop and when they both completed the loop they banged noses. After a little more of this same charade Horologium realised they had completely forgotten about him.

'Ahem Volans will you please take me to Hydra's house?'

'Whooa a taking clock.'

'Hydra's house please.'

'Oh yeah sure hop on, we'll take you there but we won't stay, Hydra is crazy, she talks too fast for us.'

'Talks way too fast,' the other confirmed. Finally they were on their way, the fish weren't the quickest of creatures, they were extremely easily distracted and forgot what they were doing not long after Horologium's constant reminders, but nonetheless, they were on their way.

* * *

The whale Cetus proved to be a very charming mode of transport, mostly serenading Lucy with his deep melodic voice as they glided through the starry sky. Lucy was having the time of her life gazing out into the never-ending expanse of this starry world and chatting with her beloved spirits. Each of the spirits were fighting to get a word in as they all pointed out the little floating islands that they called home. There were so very many spirits flying around and dotting the islands, waving to them as they passed. Cetus' back was covered in Plues that climbed all over Lucy. Leo commented that they were multiplying like mad as their stars, the "Canis Minor", were increasing in magic. Lucy had completely forgotten about her time restriction as she became lost in the timelessness of the realm. If she had been asked what a minute was while riding that whale's back she could not have answered for the concept of time was as inconceivable as the infiniteness of the universe. In this world you could just be in the moment and nothing more, and at that moment she was content, euphoric and excited all at the same time.

'Aaaaaand here we are,' the whale came to a slow halt on one of the sparkling floating islands, 'you know Lucy-chan you could always just stay on my back and we could float on into the stars together forever.' Lucy smiled uneasily and scratched the back of her head, 'maybe next time,' she replied. She took Leo's offered hand and he helped her down onto the solid ground. The great whale boomed in laughter at Lucy's expression and headed off to his next port. In front of Lucy and her gang stood a rather eclectic house, as if it couldn't quite decide what style it wanted to go with. It was made of coloured opaque crystal and there were three distinct styles that seemed to dominate the design. In some places the crystal was cut at meticulously precise angles and proportions that gave a harsh effect. In other places the crystal produced smooth waves and swirling spirals upon its surface. The third style was more like a lack of style for the crystals jutted out in natural forms like they had been left to grow wildly.

'Well I've only met her once but this house definitely compliments her personality,' Leo commented. Lucy couldn't understand how such a contradictory house could compliment just one personality but she found out soon enough.

After knocking on the resonant door they were greeted by three serpentine heads that sprouted from a long purple-scaled body. The left had thin glasses and black hair pulled back in a tight bun, the middle had all-knowing calm eyes with her hair tied back in a loose braid, and the right had wild darting eyes and equally wild frizzy hair pointing out at all angles.

* * *

It was coming up to two months now that Lucy had been gone. It seemed a lifetime ago that Natsu had gone to her apartment to check for her the first time. He had entered her apartment his usual way (silly girl hadn't even thought to lock her window) and was greatly disappointed to find that Lucy hadn't returned yet. He had set Happy down on Lucy's bed and begun pacing the apartment and looking at the clock every ten seconds. 'She said she'd be here today,' he thought. He went to get himself some food then looked around for something to play with. He made a fun game of flinging Lucy's lacy underwear over her bedpost and became quite proficient at it. He did a few hundred push-ups, quickly showered then went to sleep with Happy in Lucy's bed. Her smell that covered the pillow made him miss her more but he went to sleep satisfied that she'd surely be back by the time he opened his eyes.

Two months later and he had made a habit of sleeping at Lucy's apartment every night in case she returned. Some of the other guild members showed a bit of worry about Lucy's absence but most remarked that she was probably caught up partying with the spirits and she wouldn't be back for at least three months. This comforted Natsu a little but it didn't relieve this strange desperation he felt to see her. He had become easily agitated and wasn't as excited to go on missions as he used to be. He especially didn't take any missions that went overnight for fear that he wouldn't be in Magnolia when Lucy returned.

It was late and Happy had bugged Natsu to come out to the guild as he was intolerably bored waiting with him at Lucy's. At this hour there were often a lot of drunkards around that Natsu would be able to have a good laugh with or easily provoke into a tussle. Upon entering he spotted Wakaba, Macao and Elfman on a table in the corner having a raucous laugh and grinned in anticipation as he walked over to join them.

'Aaaaah it's Natsu, ahaha you should've seen Elfman here's face! It looked just like a tomato didn't it!' Macao had turned to Wakaba who was still in hysterics but managed to nod in affirmation of the poor take-over mage's embarrassment.

Natsu in his sober state didn't want to openly laugh at the giant's admittedly funny blushed complexion, so he just sat down and asked how they made him flushed like that.

'Oh we were just teasing him about his obvious love for Evergreen.'

Elfman was now looking like he was about to engage his Beast Soul but instead decided to divert the attention to the unwitting newcomer.

'What about Natsu and Lucy's love? He clearly can't wait until she returns, that is a man.'

'Che!' was all he answered as he said down next to Macao and rested his chin on the table.

Love Lucy? What was Elfman talking about? He'd never thought of Lucy, or anyone for that matter, as anything but a nakama. Lucy, what was Lucy to him? He'd never had to question it before but then he'd never gone this stir-crazy because of a girl before. Did he love Lucy? Is this what he was feeling? His head ached from all of the unanswered questions.

Little did he know that the three men were staring at him as his eyes closed were closed tight and face scrunched up as if he wanted to force an answer out of his ears. The men looked at each other and wordlessly agreed to give Natsu a few little nudges in the right direction.

'Natsuuu,' Macao drunkenly cooed, revelling in how amusing it will be to see the naïve boy's reactions. The dragonslayer mercifully left his tangled thoughts in the same pile that he had found them and opened his eyes to show that he was listening to the drunkards.

'Have you ever kissed a girl?'

His eyes widened then he looked down and mumbled, 'no.'

'Have you ever wanted to?'

'No.'

'Huh. Really? Why not?'

'I don't know, what's the deal? Why is it so important?' Natsu felt outnumbered and defensive like a deer surrounded by hungry wolves.

'How about Lucy,' Wakaba joined in, 'surely you've thought about giving her a kiss?' he puckered his lips and made smooching noises, 'or wanted to touch her womanly curves?' He carved out an hourglass figure in the air and both him and Macao had hearts in their eyes thinking of those curves. They continued to carry on while Natsu processed their questions.

This was all so new, these strange images of his nakama were being forced into his head, and he liked them. Up until now Natsu never saw her for her curves, she was just Lucy. He had known that her sex appeal was something she took a lot of pride in and he had found a lot of pleasure in using this knowledge to tease her. For all that Natsu noticed her body she might as well have been a man. But now his desperate yearning for this girl began to show its true colours. All it had taken was a few nudges from some drunken guild mates for Natsu's mind to begin to catch up with his body in recognising his attraction and sexual yearning for his nakama for what it was. It felt dangerous to be around others as he came to terms with this feeling so he abruptly got up and left the guild.

* * *

**(1) After a bit of research I found out that all of the celestial spirits in FT are constellations from the official 88 constellations recognised by the International Astronomical Union. It's pretty fun to re-watch the episode where they go to the spirit realm (ep. 153) and play a where's-wally of constellations. By my count we have been shown around 30 of the 88 potential celestial spirits. Anyways Hercules, Perseus and Orion are all constellations and I imagined they would be some of the strongest spirits so they could hang out with the Spirit King. These three are also the leaders of their own 'family' of constellations, a bit like Leo is the leader of the Zodiac.**


End file.
